Welcome to Sunday Matinee, where we highlight classic car reviews or other longer videos I find on YouTube. Kick back and enjoy this blast from the past.
It's been a while since we'd had Old Top Gear, so I figured hey why not bring that back. And, of course, Old Top Gear returns in grand 1990's style, with this review of the Ferrari 550 Maranello.
I never quite "got" the 550 and its immediate successor, the 575M. Both were such a radical departure from the supremely radical Testarossa before them, that I feel they went too much the other way in the styling department. Ferraris are supposed to be all swooping lines and sweeping vistas, I tell myself, and these two don't make the cut. I'm not sure what they look like, but they don't exactly appear the part of the fire-breathing V12 stallion. Just consider that today's Ferrari F12, which you can't even drive 60 miles, is considered one of its immediate descendants.
Lucky for us then that we have good ol' Clarkson to set us straight. Once you get past the styling, you can see that the 550 was truly meant to bear the Ferrari name. And right now, you can pick up one of these authentic Ferraris for less than the price of a Jaguar F-Type. That's not a bad deal at all, is it?